Ups and Downs during the past three months

Here I'm going to talk about some of the big ups and downs I experienced during the past three months.

1.  Pull-Up Strength.  I love doing Pull-Ups, but this is one move that if I stop doing then for an extended period of time, I will go down in strength... A LOT and QUICKLY.  During the two weeks of inactivity, I was literally doing no strength exercises.  Not because I couldn't, but I think I was mentally afraid of injuring myself again.  But as my ankle got stronger, my desire to workout again became stronger.  But after two weeks, I could barely do 8 reps.  But after a couple of day, I was able to get back to about 10 reps and that was one plateau.  About a month later, I got up to 15 reps and plateaued again.  Last week, I got back to 20 reps in a row.  I've done that three times since then.  I'm very happy.

2. Yoga.  My flexibility has gone to pot.  Again, like Pull-Ups, if I stop doing it, I lose it.  Two and a half years ago, I joined a tennis club.  Sundays and Wednesdays are now Tennis days.  Previously, at least one of those days was a yoga day, and one was either a stretch or a Foam Roller Day.  Now, I do nothing for flexibility.  And it shows.  When I did a Yoga routine after about two months, in the middle of July, I couldn't even get close to doing the Yoga Wrap.  My Shoulders were just too tight.  A couple of times since, I barely was able to touch my tippy tips of my fingers together, but no clasp or hook.  But I kept doing it and just today, August 28, for the first time in over... I don't know, a long time, I actually was able to hook my fingers for a quick moment on both sides.  So my flexibility is slowly coming back.  I am also making it a part of my routine to stretch my Hip Flexors and do Shoulder Opening Yoga stretches.

Another thing in Yoga is my Half-Moon pose and my Warrior 3 pose.   The first time I got back to a yoga routine in June, I was falling all over myself.  I couldn't hold the Half-Moon pose for longer than a few seconds.  I was very unstable and my legs would just poop out.  But since I started doing the Chisel and Hammer program, the routines also work the legs and I could feel my legs getting stronger.  After a few of the Chisel and Hammer routines, I did a yoga routine, and my Half-Moon was solid as a rock.  My Warrior 3 pose was also extremely stable.  I could even do it with my arms forward, not back.  I thought that playing tennis would be enough leg work for me since I did a lot of "getting low" to the ball, but it wasn't nearly enough.  Now, I know I have to do Leg-specific training moves to keep up my leg strength.

3. Over all Strength.  The old saying is right, "If you don't use it, you lose it."  I am proof of that.  Whenever I take any type of break from working out, strength workouts, for longer than a few days, I start to lose strength.  It has taken over three months, but I am back in the habit and on my way to reaching my fitness goals.

After a three month absence...

Well, after a three month absence from writing about my workouts, I'm back... sort of.  I'm about to leave on a business trip so I will be absent again for a few weeks before I get back to regular posts.  But I will give a brief overview of what I have been doing.

Probably the biggest reason for my absence is my ankle injury.  For about two weeks I didn't do anything, but then I started to do mostly upper body workouts.  But then I just got busy and ended up not writing.  That is something I regret because I have made a lot of good progress in different areas of my fitness.

Here is a basic workout week.

Sunday - Tennis
Monday - Off Day, or Stretching
Tuesday - Resistance Training
Wednesday - Tennis
Thursday - Yoga or Stretching
Friday - Resistance Training
Saturday - Off Day, or Stretching

That was how a basic week went.  Then, in July I got back into Pickle-Ball with a different friend who came back from the United States.  So, I was able to make Monday Pickle-Ball day.  But there were days when tennis got rained out so I would do a resistance workout instead.  On all resistance days, I would of course do Abs after the main routine, and the Tai Cheng Flow.  But the Tai Chen Flow sort of got phased out in and Shoulder Opening Yoga took its place.

As far as programs, when I started back after my injury, I went with Body Beast, trying several of the Build and Bulk routines in a circuit.  Then I started the Hammer and Chisel Program.  I have done all of the full routines except for one, Chisel Power, which is in the deluxe section.  I haven't do the shorter routines like the 15 minute Cardio or the 15 minute Leg routines.  But I did the 10 Minute Ab Chisel just the other day.  That is one that I will be doing again.  Most of the ab routines I did where from the ChaLEAN Extreme Program:  Ab Burner, Extreme Abs, Extreme Core Circuit, and I've Got Abs are the ones I used the most.  But I did to the Ab routine from Body Beast and P90X3 once or twice.

From now, I will post the worksheets I filled in for most of the routines I did the past three months.  The dates are all over the place, but you can get the gist of what I did.

May 30, Back to Back Upper Body days, hope I don't pay to much for this decision.

May 30, 2019, Thursday - Sagi's BOD Exclusive: Chest and Triceps + Core + Shoulder Care Modified + TCF.

I was planning to play tennis again today, but as a result of an unexpected turn of events, I ended up no being able to go and so I stayed home and went with another round of Sagi's Beachbody on Demand Exclusive workout.  This time, Chest and Triceps.  There is a Leg routine in there, but I'm staying away from heavy leg work for now to protect my knees and ankles.  I want to stay in shape for tennis and not risk straining any tendons or other muscle injuries.